This is a post about nothing revolutionary… just two meals I’ve made lately that are EASY and involve seafood. First, salmon! It is my goal to cook salmon once a week. (We’ll see.) Today I was skimming an article on the Spanish Mediterranean Diet (from one of Chef José Andrés’ websites), and it really affirmed me in this meal:

Salmon w/Broccoli & Brown Rice

I think I tend towards Mediterranean ways in general… it’s probably the Greek in me. For this meal, I used organic broccoli, brown rice with NO added anything (so the rice took 45 minutes or so to cook), and Atlantic Salmon (thanks, Harris Teeter, for your half-price deal!). The salmon marinade consisted simply of garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, and pepper… and I cooked the salmon in 5 minutes on our George Foreman. I finally watched Food Inc the other weekend, and it inspired me to eat as purely as possible!!

Of course, to balance out Food Inc, I suggest watching this. The other extreme… so funny. :)

The caption describes what’s going on here. The garlic and basil linguine is from Trader Joe’s (I love it, because it cooks in just around 5 minutes or so.). I made the spicy tomato sauce (really an “arrabiata sauce“) from tomato paste, water, and tons of different dried spices. I was going to put ground beef in the sauce for a standard meat sauce concoction, but Chris and I had just eaten Elevation Burger for lunch (YUM! And so in line with Food Inc… grass-fed, free range beef, and fries cooked in olive oil!), so we decided to go with fresh shrimp in the sauce instead. It was a lot lighter, but still filling. Delicious! :)

I studied abroad in Spain four years ago, and fell in love with the country! Early on in our relationship, Chris and I went on a date to Jaleo, “the renowned tapas restaurant of José Andrés.” Oh my goodness. One sip of the sangria, and I was transported back to Spain! The tapas were amazing, and I have since fallen in love with the food at every restaurant of his. Chris and I actually had our rehearsal dinner at the Jaleo in Crystal City, and it was SO delicious and fun!

Anyway, I could go on and on about Chef José Andrés, and I’m sure I will write more entries on his food. We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night, and I decided to make it Spanish-themed and use recipes by José! His Made in Spain cookbook was the inspiration. I made red wine sangria, beef tenderloin with picón cheese, sauteed green asparagus (white asparagus probably would have been more authentic!), and mashed potatoes with manchego and olive oil (that recipe can be found here).

Steak w/Blue Cheese Sauce & Asparagus

Here you can see most of the entire meal… I’m not sure why I put the mashed potatoes in a bowl when everything else was already on the plate!

There were a few adjustments. I used ribeye steaks (cheaper) and Moody Blue Smoked Blue Cheese (from Screwtop!) for the sauce. I also used Cabra cheese for the mashed potatoes (also from Screwtop) instead of Manchego.

Sangria!

What a fun night of Spanish-style food with our friends! By the way, check out this new temporary restaurant of his that is opening up soon. It’s going along with the National Archives’ exhibit, What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? I can’t wait!